Customer Reviews

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (D-VHS)

5 star:		(133)
4 star:		(164)
3 star:		(109)
2 star:		(79)
1 star:		(96)

 

 

Once again we have the temptation to compare the book to the movie, which I will succumb to just a little. Books and movies are different media, and each brings its own strengths to art. Such is the case here. The book was full and lengthy, and while it brought the same breadth of characters, it was able to provide a broader background for each of the characters. There were some spots where I thought the book was just a bit fuzzy on the plot, but I loved the style.

The movie provides more visuals, but with a two-hour length it had to cut back on the length of background for the characters. The movie glossed over some of the darker aspects of the characters, particular Alan Quatermain, but enhanced others, particular the background of Mina Harker. The other strange addition was that of the character of Dorian Gray. I also objected to the change in the invisible man character from the book to the movie. I much preferred the book's Hawley Griffin as the invisible man versus Rodney Skinner, who supposedly stole the formula. Griffin was a much stronger, more tormented character, though his characterization would require more film time to establish and would likely have weakened the roles of the primary actors.

In terms of characterization, Sean Connery clearly shined as Quatermain, as he always seems to do in every role. Peta Wilson is excellent as the sultry, dangerous Mina Harker. Naseeruddin Shah as Captain Nemo returns Nemo to his original characterization by Verne as a Sikh. Shah's Nemo was a welcome variation to previous Nemos, providing a sense of command, control and honor in comparison to those others who sometimes seemed simpering and typically talked far too much for Verne's Nemo. The other actors have insufficient screen time to fully flesh out their roles, partially because of the large number of lead characters.

The plot itself is a bit of a muddle. It's difficult to follow the progression and contrivances that lead from point-to-point. Often the logic is non-existent, and the viewer is left to wonder how they knew they were headed the right direction other than a trite explanation by one of the lead characters. Had the movie been extended by another 15 or 20 minutes many of the incongruities could have been reduced and the story flow could have been smoothed. To try to minimize the various confusions: Essentially the story is about a group of sort of good guys out to stop a definite bad guy from conquering the world, except the bad guy has been cleverly manipulating the sort of good guys all along and has a nefarious reason (of course) for doing so.

The special effects end up providing much of the focus of the movie in lieu of a more coherent plot. Some of the special effects are very good, such as the bizarre image of the Nautilus sailing the canals of Venice. The destruction of Venice by underwater bombs is standard fare by today's standards. The other special effects vary in their quality and effect on the viewer, but are generally good. As noted before, the special effects often substitute for plot.

Though some of my criticisms are not encouraging, I actually liked the movie. As a B movie it is okay. Clearly not in the league of movies such as The Lord of the Rings, it is nonetheless a rousing adventure. In general the movie rates 3 stars, but I'm giving it 4 stars because of the three actors that really made this movie for me: Connery, Wilson and Shah.

You'll probably be appalled. If your last contact with these authors was as assigned reading in a Lit class watch this to see what made these authors famous. Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Capt. Nemo, The Invisible Man and Dorian Grey along with Alan Quatermaine (King Solomon's Mines), Mina (Dracula), and Tom Sawyer have assembled to combat a an evil mastermind set on worldwide domination.

This movie is more Saturday afternoon B movie serial than Lit class. The special effects keep coming in wave after wave. The plot is a bit weak and some character details are a bit hazy (vampires out in daylight?, just who is the bad guy(s) anyway?) and it's not quite clear why Tom Sawyer got tossed in the mix but the overall effect is one of fun.

This is in the guilty pleasure category of movie so just settle back with the junk food of your choice and waste a couple of hours with this. If anybody asks what you were doing just mumble something about Twain, Verne, Wilde.....

LXG is a far-out cheesy marvel of a movie that I enjoyed every second of. The film features various fictional characters brought together as a sort of original x-men team of the past. Once united they battle the evil masked Fantom and his army who want to plunge the planet into a world war. The movie's larger than life elements make it an easy target to pick on, but I won't. I just can't pick on something that made me smile so much. This is wonderful stuff to enjoy with lots of popcorn and a favorite beverage.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is witty, action packed and smart. The film is, of course based on the comic book literary characters, and not so much on their traditional literary roles. One of the most interesting things done in this film dealt with Professor Moriarty. At the beginning he is portrayed as a middle aged gentleman, and at the end he is shown in younger form. Of course this is reminiscent of the idea that there were actually 3 Moriarty brothers - the elder being a professor, and the youngest being a criminal mastermind. The younger, according to his creator, Jules Verne, kills the elder and disguises himself as the professor. The only thing that would have been even wittier in this film would have been if they had managed to get Richard Roxburgh to play three roles instead of two, also posing as Captain Nemo. There is a strong belief among Jules Verne scholars that Captain Nemo was infact Professor James Moriarty!!! This film is an excellent action piece, whose only short coming would be the CGI effects (and no, Mr. Hyde is not CGI!!). There are a few characters that were CGI rendered which were obviously fake. Other than that the film is Extraordinary, but it must be taken for what it is - a film adaptation of a comic book.

I went into the theater expecting a horrible movie thanks to friends and theatrical reviews. Maybe because of that, I was able to enjoy it. I agree that some parts could probably have been done better, but I feel that way about almost every movie that's come out recently. While this isn't going to have an underground cult following, there's no reason to avoid it. People who waste their time talking about how badly it was done need to calm down. It's just a movie, don't take it so seriously!

I'm writing as a fan of reasonably-well-made action movies based on interesting ideas. Also I've always believed that a goal of "remaining faithful to a comic book" would be a ridiculous goal of a commercial adventure flick. So if you are offended by what I call the "blasphemy against the inane" then you might be offended by this film which features a great performance by Sean Connery even though you've seen this character portrayed by him many times.

The spirit of a comic book is retained with much posturing and pretentious dialogue, the starkness between the heroes and villians and plenty of campy banter and comeradery. The main bad guy turns out to be a madman who wants to take over the world (surprise, surprise.) Foibles of the heroes are well explored - we see Jekyll's cowardice, Sawyer's youthful inexperience, Nemo's Kali-worship, Quartermain's indifference to his nation's plight, etc. The characters from famous literature are a bit "off" from their original, but fun nontheless; I can't imagine that Mark Twain wanted Tom Sawyer to become an intelligence agent for the United States, but it's played out cleverly in the plot.

The effects are stunning; I especially liked the Nautilus design and the way the Invisible Man was portrayed. The dialogue never gets too silly and when the viewer feels that it's about to it was saved by an action segment. This film will be enjoyed by people who like all the Batman movies, James Bond, and stuff like "The Rock" with Sean Connery or "Air Force One"; basically anyone who, like me, is not too picky about action movies as long as they don't try to be too much more than that.

i rented lxg and liked it a lot. it was nice to see a movie that's just plain fun. the cast is really good. i'm a fan of the these literary characters and loved seeing them all together. i like comic book styled movies and will adding this one to my collection of dvds. anyone who likes entertaining escapism should see this one.

I'm very glad, and pleasantly surprised, to report that LXG is a very fun popcorn movie. It isn't exactly true to the Alan Moore comic, but Alan Moore wasn't exactly true to the original stories or characters either. Moore made changes that were not always for the best. Moore's Quatermain was nothing like Haggard's original. Connery's version is much better. The rest of the casting is also Extraordinary.

Peta Wilson is one sexy vampire!

When I first heard that they were doing a film adaptation of Alan Moore's classic graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen I was very excited at the prospect. Alan Moore's alternate historical tale of late 19th-century literary characters of Captain Nemo, Mina Harker, Allan Quatermain, Invisible Man and Mr. Hyde was well-received by both critics and fans of comics. This story was one of those kinds that just begged to be made into a film and I remember many discussions with other fans of who exactly should play the characters from the book. This property was one of those can't-miss. But too much tinkering with Moore's story, characters and overall themes made too much of a mess of a film.

I'll start by admitting that I enjoyed the film enough. The film had enough action sequences to keep my attention. The story was fun enough to follow, albeit confusing since I was expecting something else on the screen after I'd read the graphic novel prior to seeing the film. The special-effects work were done well enough, though a few shots here and there looked to much like CGI. LXG looked good overall, but it wasn't the League that Moore created that I so enjoyed reading. As I said earlier, too much tinkering by the producers, director and writers from the original source material made what was an ok, fun film experience into something even better.

The film that I saw was so different from the book that it should've been called something else. Characters were added that were never in the book. Usually such film adaptations of comic books make such changes, but in LXG they made major character additions that changed the entire dynamics of the team and those they were were up against. Some characters from the book that had pivotal supporting roles were removed outright. By the time all the changes were done the film and the book were two separately, distinct works that only had certain characters in common and that was it.

In the end, as a big fan of Alan Moore's graphic novel I was disappointed to no end. I still enjoyed the film once I realized that I wasn't seeing the book come to life but watching a wholly different animal. LXG (as the studio sometimes marketed the film as) is an ok enough film even fun if one was into such types of entertainment, but it could've been better and it should've been. I can understand now why Alan Moore wanted his name removed from the credits and why he doesn't want his name included in anymore film adaptations of his other published works.

This is a movie about a very unlikely group of heroes and superheroes that must join each other to win a battle against an evil madman and save the world from his malevolent, ultimate-destruction plan. This movie is a must for readers of classic literature since its main characters are:

*Allan Quatermain from the novel "King Solomon's Mines" by H. Rider Haggard

*Captain Nemo from "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" by Jules Verne

*The Invisible Man from "The Invisible Man" by H. G. Wells

*Wilhelmina Harker from "Dracula" by Bram Stoker

*Dorian Gray from "The Portrait of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde

*Tom Sawyer from "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain

*Dr. Jeckyll from "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson

For all of you who don't know who these characters are and have never read the original "League of Extraordinary Gentleman" graphic novels by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, if you really want to enjoy this movie as much as I did, you probably should read some of these classic novels first.

The plot is a very old and tried one, which has been re-done in this movie surprisingly well. Although you shouldn't expect many unanticipated twists in the story, do look for enjoyable references to other novels like: "Crimes of the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allan Poe, "The Phantom of the Opera" by Gaston Leroux and "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, among others. It even pays homage to Ian Fleming's 007 (James Bond) characters and Sir Sean Connery himself, as it includes a short banter with two characters named M and Q.

The direction and editing of the movie is good, the story is coherent and follows a reasonable path so you won't be disappointed, the characters and their dialogues are right on target, and the setting, costumes and actor's performances are great. There are only two reasons why I give this movie only four stars: first, some very bad special effects (although, most of them are superb and it's a treat to watch how these were done on the Special Features) and second, a not-so-unexpected ending that yells, "Sequel, sequel, sequel!"

Surprisingly good fantasy/action/adventure movie overall.

--Reviewed by M. E. Volmar